Scientists have isolated the gene responsible for temperature-controlled sex determination in turtles.
Red eared slider turtles, a common household pet, develop into male or female embryos according to their egg incubation temperature.
This little understood process is also at work in the eggs of crocodiles, alligators and some lizards.
Researchers are now one step closer to solving a mystery which has persisted for over 50 years.
Genetic 'knockout'
An international team from China and the United States used a recently refined process to "knock out" the gene they suspected to be responsible for sex determination in the turtles - known as Kdm6b.
"Knockouts come in several flavours," explained Prof Blanche Capel from Duke University, an author on the study. "It usually means a genetic manipulation that deletes a gene from the genome or blocks its function."=read more
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